"Climate change is an issue that is almost designed to create apathy ..."
-- Linda Connor, Science Alert, 20 May 2010
The writer argues that the rise of climate change denialism in the face of growing scientific evidence of serious consequences of climate change can be explained by looking at basic human psychology. Essentially, we're talking about extrapolating psychology to the sociological sphere.
Negative messages about the future, such as those expressed in discourses of climate crisis, are a challenge to our cultural projects of immortality. These negative messages, connected with death and decline, engender conscious and unconscious defence mechanisms that send us back to the life-affirming messages of consumer capitalism.
More like this
We have a Steacie Library Hackfest coming up and our there this year is Making a Difference with Data. And what better area to make a difference in than the environment and climate change?
I think this post might signal the birth of a new all-consuming blogging obsession -- climate change in general and specifically how the realities of climate change play out in the Canadian context, especially as it relates to public policy.
How climate change may be fueling Canada’s fire season
A more than unusually obscure headline perhaps. Here's the link. I noticed, because my watchlist contained a pile of changes like:
Climate change plucks the painful nagging fear at the heart of most Americans that our childish and carefree existence, lives where we can casually fulfill every whim by using just a bit more energy to bend reality to our desires, has a price that must be paid. A very high price. A price that includes having to grow up.